Vimicro to benefit from government alliance to drive adoption of SVAC digital-surveillance standard

BEIJING, CHINA: Vimicro International Corp., a leading multimedia semiconductor and IP-based surveillance solution provider, announced that on August 25, 2011, five key government agencies formed an alliance to promote the adoption of the Surveillance Video and Audio Coding (SVAC) digital-surveillance standard on a national level.

The alliance is a non-profit organization devoted to accelerating the application and implementation of SVAC, as well as to popularize the standard and assist its industrialization process. Participating government agencies included: the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the Standardization Administration of China (SAC).

During the alliance's inaugural conference, Jian Li, Director of the First Research Institute of the Ministry of Public Security, was elected chairman, and Vimicro's chairman and CEO, Dr. John Deng, was elected honorary Chairman and Chief Scientist by the government and industry leaders assembled to promote the SVAC standard. The representatives of the five agencies also delivered speeches at the gathering. One common theme was the continued commitment of the Chinese government to promote the standard nationwide to expand the application of SVAC to other areas such as the Internet of Things and to promote SVAC to become an international standard, among other topics discussed.

"The SVAC national standard was developed to solve the interoperability issues of current video-surveillance systems due to inconsistent source-coding standards. The SVAC national standard will play an important role in national security, the digital intelligent city, intelligent transportation, energy development, business, finance, healthcare and many other areas. The SVAC alliance will improve China's audio and video technology for the benefit of national security as well as our general industrial competitiveness, which in turn will encourage more users to purchase our members' SVAC products," commented Wei Sun, head of the Technology, Information and Automation Department of the SAC.

Yiping Xie, head of the Technology and Information Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security, added, "From a national innovation and independent intellectual-property perspective, the SVAC alliance creates a platform to develop the entire security and surveillance industry chain in China."

As previously disclosed, the SVAC standard was co-developed by Vimicro and the first Research Institute of the Ministry of Public Security and it also benefited from the contributions of more than 40 scientific research institutes, universities and security-industry companies.

The standard was officially released by the SAC on December 31, 2010. SVAC is the first technology standard designed to solve the unique needs of the surveillance industry. It has special significance for the establishment of China's public security and crime-prevention system. The implementation of the SVAC standard commenced on May 1, 2011, and it is the preferred protocol for government contracts and is available to all suppliers participating in the surveillance industry.

"This alliance creates the foundation for an exciting new era for the security video and audio-monitoring industry," commented Dr. Deng. "As the co-initiator and co-developer of the SVAC standard, we believe Vimicro is well-situated to establish a leadership position in this growing field, and being elected as the Alliance's honorary chairman and chief scientist is a tremendous personal honor. I will devote my efforts to promote and develop the technology necessary for supporting the standard."